Eternity

In 2011 I made a spiral sculpture for the garden, without realising it I had used another maori symbol, this time the symbol for eternity.

The double twist, the pikorua, represents two new fern shoots growing intertwined. 

It takes its meaning in the joining of cultures, lovers or friendships. 

This shape represents a bonding of friendship and loyalty, two lives becoming one for eternity. 

It represents the joining of many people, or cultures for eternity. 

I continue to work with this shape (hard to make in clay) and have recently made a smaller one, this time with just a single twist.


Apparently, the single twist is called the Rauiri and represents the path of life, it is the eternity symbol.  It is often given as a gesture of friendship between different tribes and at a wedding. 

As opposed to the double or triple twist, the single twist represents the joining of individual people for eternity.


This time I covered the leatherhard clay with several coats of green slip, then spent many a happy hour listening to radio 4 whilst I burnished the clay. When fired to stoneware the shine from the burnishing appears (no glaze required). I do need to find a darker green slip, as I feel this is a little too pale.



As a result of  showing images of my work on my blog, I was commissioned to make a pikorua in a blue/grey colour. After many hours of work the following piece emerged from my kiln this week and is now with its new owner.

Pikorua (~30cm height)

This is the tallest work that I can fire in my kiln, I had to shave off a little from the bottom of this piece to make it fit!